Best bets for Doncaster in our daily racing blog

Nicky Henderson was telling me yesterday that he doesn’t expect to have many runners over the next few days because the ground is so bad. But that doesn’t apply to Doncaster, which, by some miracle, is mostly good to soft and I think he might have the first three winners there, through Nordic Quest, Nesterenko and Act Alone.

None of them are especially tempting for betting purposes, mind you. For that, I’ll have to wait for Harry Fry’s Triangular (2.45), though the 5-1 is a shade less than I hoped for.

Now nine, Triangular should not be past it yet but he certainly needs to recover from a bit of a slump. On the other hand, his mark has tumbled; in March 2012 he won a better race at Newbury from a 7lb higher mark.

This is his first run for Fry, six months after leaving Tom George. He has done well fresh in the past and there is every chance that this move will revive him. It’s hard not to be impressed with Fry’s 44% strike-rate with chasers this term (16/36).

Change of stable, change of fortune, that’s the game on Talking Horses today, because I also fancy Expose (4.40) at Kempton, the beast having won at Lingfield last month on his first start for Michael Appleby. He had dropped 12lb from his peak rating with William Haggas and had not been seen for more than a year.

Appleby said he felt the horse needed that run, which seems reasonable, and there may be better to come. In any case, Expose is only 2lb higher, with a more experienced jockey in the saddle and must surely be competitive again at 11-4.

Clive Cox seems to have found the key to Perfect Haven (6.40), formerly with Ralph Beckett and another winner at Lingfield last time. She’s only 3lb higher and the runner-up, Welsh Sunrise, is only 1lb better off. I just hope Perfect Haven, a 7-2 shot, doesn’t have to lead, because she may struggle to get on the front end from trap eight.

Tipping competition, day three

Our winners so far:

Monday

Bold Tara 8-1

Primacy 16-1

Lapis Blue 14-1

Tuesday

Carli King 5-2

Scotsbrook Legend 25-1

Mataajir 5-2

And our leader is:

DrClaw +29.50

… who nicked a profit yesterday with Carli King. Second place is now shared by erifder and intelligentlaying on +23.50 as both had Scotsbrook Legend and Mataajir. No one else had Scotsbrook Legend.

In the event of a tie at the end of the week, the winner will be the tipster who, from among those tied on the highest score, posted their tips earliest on the final day.

This week’s prize is a pair of Club enclosure tickets to Cheltenham on Saturday 25 January, when our winner will hopefully see the return of Big Buck’s, due to race in the Cleeve Hurdle that day. The feature race is the Argento, a Gold Cup trial. If you don’t win, you can buy tickets here.

As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of £1 at starting price on our nominated races, of which there will be three each day up until Friday. Non-runners count as losers. If you have not joined in so far this week, you are welcome to do so today but you will start on -6.